Spreadsheets and Databases in Classroom
Never before have so many individuals had this much access to data and databases every single day. Information is routinely collected about us, from us and for us; but many people have no idea how to access or use the information available to them. According to National Education Technology Plan (2010) research and information fluency to represent, manipulate and communicate data, information and ideas are critical skills for the 21st century citizen. Spreadsheets and databases are information management tools commonly used in personal and business finance, natural sciences, social sciences, math and increasingly, in other fields. Both spreadsheet and database programs permit users to store, organize and manipulate data, but the types of information they manage, their purposes and their functions differ.
Spreadsheets
Spreadsheets are interactive digital charts that organize and manipulate predominantly numerical data into rows and columns using formula rules to define how the row and column functions and data interact within each cell (Roblyer & Doering, 2013). With spreadsheets, teachers and students can use professional tools to design and format layout, enter and revise data in cells, create or copy equations to analyze the data and generate graphic representations of the data and its relationships. Spreadsheets have long been part of the financial accounting and quickly spread to science and technology. Familiar spreadsheet programs include Excel, Google spreadsheets, Apple’s Numbers 09.
Relative advantages of using spreadsheets in the classroom include:
Spreadsheets in High School Science:
Spreadsheets can be easily integrated into the science classroom for representing and analyzing experimental results. Students can create tables with the independent and dependent variables intersecting, plot data points, sort and rank data, and conduct simple statistical analyses. Spreadsheets can also be used to predict how a system would behave based on model data. For example, entering known climate data to discern rates of change and predict the effects of current rates, lower rates or higher rates.
Databases
Databases are programs that store, organize, manipulate and search complex information with both numerical and text elements much like a digital rolodex or file cabinet. While databases can perform some of the calculation functions of spreadsheet, they are predominantly used to manage larger sets of data with more complicated relationships. Instead of storing data in cells like a spreadsheet, a database will keep one piece of information in a field and related information for one entry in a record. The real power of databases lies in the searching capabilities (Roblyer & Doering, 2012, p.152). Relevant information can be readily located and compared in one or more databases using specific search criteria. Databases range from desktop creation programs like Microsoft Access and cloud-based systems like Google SQL to expansive global databases both visible (e.g. NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center ) and less visible (e.g. Oracle- BSU student center, iTunes, Facebook).
Spreadsheets
Spreadsheets are interactive digital charts that organize and manipulate predominantly numerical data into rows and columns using formula rules to define how the row and column functions and data interact within each cell (Roblyer & Doering, 2013). With spreadsheets, teachers and students can use professional tools to design and format layout, enter and revise data in cells, create or copy equations to analyze the data and generate graphic representations of the data and its relationships. Spreadsheets have long been part of the financial accounting and quickly spread to science and technology. Familiar spreadsheet programs include Excel, Google spreadsheets, Apple’s Numbers 09.
Relative advantages of using spreadsheets in the classroom include:
- Save time by: performing repeated calculations from either created or uploaded formulas; single point data corrections reflected throughout spreadsheet; cut and paste information between sheets; search data; use templates; insert hyperlinks
- Display information in organized formats (charts and graphs) with lots of user control over formatting that can be easily exported into documents, presentations and websites
- Easily manipulate variables to visualize and analyze relationships in real or hypothetical data
- Increased motivation for math as students: interact with technology, use concrete representations of abstract information, produce professional products, focus on higher order math processes rather than routine arithmetic
- Spreadsheets can perform complex calculations (like statistics, calculus, etc.) so that users can analyze results without advanced math knowledge
- Web-based programs also increase data sharing and collaboration
Spreadsheets in High School Science:
Spreadsheets can be easily integrated into the science classroom for representing and analyzing experimental results. Students can create tables with the independent and dependent variables intersecting, plot data points, sort and rank data, and conduct simple statistical analyses. Spreadsheets can also be used to predict how a system would behave based on model data. For example, entering known climate data to discern rates of change and predict the effects of current rates, lower rates or higher rates.
- Vampires: Fact or Fiction - students use spreadsheet to model exponential growth of vampires to demonstrate how unlikely their existence; although designed for middle school, it would provide a great entry lesson to using Excel or Google Spreadsheet
- Population Genetics for AP Bio - students use Hardy-Weinberg equation to track changes in allele frequency; same topics covered in general biology for 10th graders but would need adaptation
Databases
Databases are programs that store, organize, manipulate and search complex information with both numerical and text elements much like a digital rolodex or file cabinet. While databases can perform some of the calculation functions of spreadsheet, they are predominantly used to manage larger sets of data with more complicated relationships. Instead of storing data in cells like a spreadsheet, a database will keep one piece of information in a field and related information for one entry in a record. The real power of databases lies in the searching capabilities (Roblyer & Doering, 2012, p.152). Relevant information can be readily located and compared in one or more databases using specific search criteria. Databases range from desktop creation programs like Microsoft Access and cloud-based systems like Google SQL to expansive global databases both visible (e.g. NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center ) and less visible (e.g. Oracle- BSU student center, iTunes, Facebook).
Relative advantages of using databases in the classroom include:
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Databases in High School Science:
Most scientific data are housed in searchable databases. Students can access and manipulate real data, as in the climate change example above or locate peer-reviewed evidence to support an idea or argument. Using information gleaned from multiple databases, students could also make new associations such as connecting climate data with human activities, and possibly even use the aforementioned predictive rates to determine a human activity threshold. Students can also connect and collaborate with peers or experts through contact databases.
Integrating Technology
Integrating databases and spreadsheets into our curriculum empowers our students with authentic research and analytical skills, and affords greater opportunities for inquiry, experimentation, problem-solving and other higher order thinking processes. Spreadsheets and databases foster learning about how information is organized by associations and the tangible interactions between specific types of information. “Learning to sort and filter data on a simple database will help students understand how data can be narrowed down to a certain topic when searching a library card catalog or the Internet,” (Dounce, 2008). Learning becomes relevant, concrete, visual and social as students generate their own information and build on the work of others. Finally, students gain the tools they will need to be life-long learners and valuable participants in the digital world of tomorrow.
Resources for teachers to start using spreadsheets and databases
Resources
Roblyer, M. D., & Doering, A. H. (2012). Integrating educational technology into teaching (6th ed.). Allyn & Bacon.
Dounce, S.A.(2008). Database Magic - ISTE. Retrieved June 26, 2014, from http://www.iste.org/docs/excerpts/DATMAG-excerpt.pdf.
Teaching with spreadsheets - SERC. (2010). Retrieved June 26, 2014, from http://serc.carleton.edu/sp/library/spreadsheets/index.html.
Most scientific data are housed in searchable databases. Students can access and manipulate real data, as in the climate change example above or locate peer-reviewed evidence to support an idea or argument. Using information gleaned from multiple databases, students could also make new associations such as connecting climate data with human activities, and possibly even use the aforementioned predictive rates to determine a human activity threshold. Students can also connect and collaborate with peers or experts through contact databases.
- BioDidac - huge database of searchable biology images that could easily be used in taxonomy lessons to classify or generate cladograms and phylogenetic trees or in anatomy lessons to have students create graphic organizers
- BEN (BioSciEdNet) - National Science Digital Library (NSDL) Pathway for biological sciences education; searchable database with lessons, videos, and resources for both educators and students
- BioQuest Data - multiple real biology data sets for students to use for data mining
- UniProt - a comprehensive, accessible database of protein sequence and functional information; this database can be used to compare sequences between organisms to determine relatedness
Integrating Technology
Integrating databases and spreadsheets into our curriculum empowers our students with authentic research and analytical skills, and affords greater opportunities for inquiry, experimentation, problem-solving and other higher order thinking processes. Spreadsheets and databases foster learning about how information is organized by associations and the tangible interactions between specific types of information. “Learning to sort and filter data on a simple database will help students understand how data can be narrowed down to a certain topic when searching a library card catalog or the Internet,” (Dounce, 2008). Learning becomes relevant, concrete, visual and social as students generate their own information and build on the work of others. Finally, students gain the tools they will need to be life-long learners and valuable participants in the digital world of tomorrow.
Resources for teachers to start using spreadsheets and databases
- Teaching with Spreadsheets– Pedagogy in Action Serc Portal – BEST SITE! comprehensive site with many teaching resources, research links about integrating spreadsheets and lessons
- internet4classrooms -Excel: tutorials for using excel
- Microsoft Access: basic lessons, hints and applications to get you started with Access
- teAchnology: Using computer databases in the classroom
- Spreadsheets lesson plan collection from Fayette County Public Schools, Lexington, KY
Resources
Roblyer, M. D., & Doering, A. H. (2012). Integrating educational technology into teaching (6th ed.). Allyn & Bacon.
Dounce, S.A.(2008). Database Magic - ISTE. Retrieved June 26, 2014, from http://www.iste.org/docs/excerpts/DATMAG-excerpt.pdf.
Teaching with spreadsheets - SERC. (2010). Retrieved June 26, 2014, from http://serc.carleton.edu/sp/library/spreadsheets/index.html.